Mike Gravel on Corporations

Libertarian for President; Former Democratic Senator (AK)

Hold accountable war-profiteers like NBC and GE

[Cutting me out of the Drexel debate] is corporate censorship. It’s not just NBC. NBC is owned by General Electric, one of the war profiteers in this country. We have to hold them accountable. I will go at them where they live.
Because it’s not fair for them to do what they’re doing. I have a voice. I may not have the millions of dollars that the other candidates have, but I don’t need millions of dollars to tell you the truth about what’s going on in this country.

Leadership fails because US is run by corporate America

We are going downhill as a nation. We refuse to accept this. We’re stuck in triumphalism, thinking we’re the greatest in the world. Well, boy, start looking at educational statistics around the world and you’ll see we’re far from the greatest in the
world, and we’re going downhill.

No, we are failing, and it’s our leadership that’s failing, and the American people, if they had the power to make laws in partnership with representative government, they could correct this.

But you can’t, since the country is run by corporate America, particularly the military-industrial complex, the medical-industrial complex, and we do nothing about it.
Look at this election and it’s all money. Follow the money, and you’ll find out what you’re going to get in the way of leadership.

Corporate taxes just get passed on to consumers

“Soak the rich” is one approach, but it never happens regardless of whether the liberals or conservatives hold political power. The wealthy have the money to game the system.

“Tax the
corporations” is another approach, but corporate taxes are built into the cost of products or services, so consumers are actually paying those taxes, too. It’s a hidden sales tax.

I subscribe to a sales tax system, most of which is included in what is
called the Fair Tax. The Fair Tax meets the fairness criteria: simplicity, transparency and no exceptions.

The goal is to keep tax reform revenue-neutral. It is not a tax-cut program. Whatever the tax rate on new goods & services that will produce the
same amount of money currently raised by the income tax is the sales tax rate. Best estimates indicate that the rate would be somewhere between 20% & 25%. Also, best estimates indicate that it would take a year to transition from one system to the other.

Purpose of economy is to meet people’s needs, not business

It is all too easy to forget the fundamental purpose of an economic system; it is to satisfy the material needs of the people. It is not to “play for real” an elaborate game of Monopoly where the object is to own all property and impoverish all
other “players.” From society’s point of view the object is to produce an adequate amount of things people need at an accept level of quality, at prices they can afford, and with the widest possible availability and minimum environmental degradation.

Measured against these tests, the US economy scores high on only one point--it produces a lot. On grounds other than straight production, our economy is seriously out of whack with the needs of the people.

The government decision-making community,
which is supposed to look out for the interests of the people, has historically been “pro-business-corporation.” As a result the entire system is badly skewed against the consumer in our laws, our institutions, and our culture.